


Free Meal

by Blacklyra



Category: Assassin's Creed
Genre: Fast Food, Gen, OCs make appearances, On the Run, Pre AC1, can't deal with assassins, lying, normal people
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-04
Updated: 2014-04-04
Packaged: 2018-01-18 04:00:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1414294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blacklyra/pseuds/Blacklyra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A worker at the local burger joint comes across an odd sight during her lunch break.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Free Meal

**\--2003, Rapid City**

_'Sundays were always the slow shifts,'_ The woman heaved an equally slow sigh as she slapped together another quarter-pounder for an impatient man driving a monstrous, gas-guzzling who amused himself by making the most rude gestures while he waited. This was the worst. Just when you were starting to get used to the mind-boggling dullness of a Sunday shift, just one horrible person has to come along to ruin the whole day for you. She simply swallowed it and moved a little bit faster to get the customer his food and out of her face for the day.

It wasn't long before the timer on her wristwatch buzzed and the young woman raised her voice to call out to the manager, "Mikey, may I take off for lunch now?" The ever calm man turned painfully slowly to face her and gave a definitive nod, allowing her to sigh and relief and duck into the break room to take off her apron.

"Lindsey, could you do me a favor?" One of her co-workers leaned into the room just as she clocked out, arriving at the worst possible second. Lindsey just gave him a withering look and pointed to the time clock, while at the same time indicating her lack of apron. "No, no, I mean... There's this kid outside, and since you're off, I was hoping you could do something about him."

The woman immediately straightened up with a more concerned expression. "What kind of kid?" Surely, there wasn't some lost or abandoned child here of all places. In spite of her worry, Lindsey had never had children and never knew how to deal with them, let alone what to do if they had to deal with a potential Amber Alert at a fast food restaurant.

"Um, well, he looks like a teenager, actually. He's actually been out here for a couple of hours. Until you got off, there was no one available..." The younger worker even has the decency to appear a tad sheepish, embarrassed that his company would put off immediately helping a kid to make money. Not that such an attitude was unusual, but leaning on common to say the least in the world of profit. But Lindsey didn't want to give off the same callous tendencies and gave him a smile that really looked more like a wince and headed towards the door.

"Alright, I guess I might as well try to talk to him, at the very least."

"Thanks a lot Lindsey, I wouldn't know what to do without you..."

The woman just laughed and moved around him, "No, you sure wouldn't."

Whatever Lindsey had been expecting when she stepped outside to greet their unexpected guest, it certainly wasn't this. The 'kid' sitting on the restaurant's bench outside was definitely a teenager, fifteen or maybe sixteen, though the mature expression on his face should've belonged to someone several years older. He was staring at his surroundings with an odd sense of wonder and perhaps a bit of fear, fingers clenched tightly around the rough wood of his seat. He was also very unclean, dirt and grass stains splattered irregularly over the teenager's pants and heavily worn hiking boots.

Her gaze lingered on his scarred face, never having seen someone so young marked in such a way. The noise she made in her approach however, quickly drew the young boy's attention, narrowed brown eyes meeting her hazel ones in clear suspicion. She could still see the fear though.

Lindsey held up her hands in a placating manner, trying to appear as non threatening as humanly possible, while at the same time adopting a hopefully calming smile. "I heard you've been out here for a while... I just came out to see if you needed any help." The woman prayed her attempt was working, instead of just making her look exceptionally awkward to a complete stranger.

"Um...no, I'm fine-" The teen started to say, before he was cut off by an insistent growl of his stomach. He flushed slightly and looked away, "Well, maybe not."

"Do you want to come sit inside?" The words were out of her mouth before she could stop herself, mind whirling with thoughts of orphans and starving and Amber Alerts. The boy looked shocked for a few moments, biting his lip and glancing around nervously as if worried someone was about to jump out of the shadows while they were talking. After what seemed like an eternity which was really just a few moments, he nodded and followed Lindsey inside, glancing over his shoulder as the door shut behind him. The woman started to consider the possibility that the teen could be a little bit paranoid, but the unknown reason he acted that way was what worried her more.

Lindsey opened her mouth to ask why the boy was on edge, but instead found him staring at the menu fixedly and quickly changed her mind. "Want something to eat?"

"I don't...I don't have any money," He admitted, rubbing his calloused hands together listlessly.

"Tell you what..." Lindsey huffed, burying her hands in her pockets and thinking that maybe she was going to regret this later, "You tell me your name and I'll get you something to hold you over for today." He glances at her hesitantly and she just nods in response.

"My name's...D-Derrick. Thanks, er..." The hesitation he gave over his name set off some alarm bells in Lindsey's head and she wondered if she could subtly find out if he was on a missing persons' list.

"It's Lindsey, and it's no problem," She strod up to the counter and ordered a simple cheeseburger with a drink and some fries while the boy took a seat close to the door, hoping that her guest wasn't some kind of vegetarian. She felt off, probably because she rarely ever ordered food from her workplace, but wasn't entirely sure. Regardless when she brought the meal to Derrick, who seemed more concerned with the passerby outside rather than his food, right up until the smell brought his eyes to the plate.

Lindsey doesn't know how to react when the boy unwrapped the burger and examines it curiously as though he's never touched one before, and she can't help but speak up, "You're acting strange, young man. Have you never had a cheeseburger before?"

Something like panic appears on his face for a second before it is smothered. "Of course I have! I always love eating...this..." Lindsey frowns at his obvious lie but doesn't say anything as Derrick takes a bite. The instant he does, she knew for certain that the teen really was lying, his face contorting in surprise as he stares down at his meal. Moments later, the food is simply gone, and the woman is sure she's never seen someone eat anything that quickly or with such gusto. "T-that...was the best thing I've ever had," Derrick's voice is deadly serious, and almost impossible to argue with.

And, of course, Lindsey interprets the sentence much differently.

All she can think about is what kind of kid hasn't had a typical fast food burger? Likely those with a sub-par or nonexistant home life. She takes in the heavy stains, old clothes and nervous attitude, no longer able to ignore the possibility that this boy might need help. "Derrick, just stay here for a second okay? I need to go make a call," Lindsey leaves him there and heads to the break room, "Time to find out who this kid is exactly." She heads straight to her locker and takes out her phone and starts tapping in numbers, hoping that someone will pick up quickly, "I wonder if he's on the missing persons' list or not..."

She's about to press the call button when the manager poked his head into the room and announced, "Hey, Lindsey, thought you might want to know that your little guest just left."

"What?!" She dropped the phone with a clatter and dashed outside, a pile of greased wrappers on his table the only indication that Derrick had even been there. "When did he...?"

"I thought he told you, the boy said he wanted to thank you and asked where the break room was. He headed over there and left a moment later," The look on Mikey's face is pure confusion, unable to understand why she was so shocked. But the woman knew she was had. Somehow, the kid had overheard her intention to call the police and bolted. And now she was left no closer to the truth than she had been from the first moment she'd seen the kid.

"That little bastard!" Lindsey howled, shutting herself in the break room again, tapping furiously on her phone.

* * *

 

\--Several miles outside the city limits, the sixteen year-old who called himself Derrick was currently hitch-hiking his way to his next destination in a company of a friendly middle-aged couple until they arrived at the next major city. The company was a good way to help him relax for a few moments before the worry of the chase seeped back into his brain, not to mention increase his travel speed.

All in all, he thought that this had been a rather productive couple of days out on his own. Free meal too. And what had been in that greasy burger anyway? Beef? He was pretty sure it was beef, but he could be wrong. Smiling in contentment, Desmond crossed his arms behind his head in the backseat, thinking about his first real taste of blasphemous, unhealthy fast food.

It certainly wouldn't be the last time either.

**Author's Note:**

> Just a short little story I wrote for my birthday.
> 
> And yeah, I have to believe that Desmond would have never been able to get a hold of food so unhealthy until after he ran away. That's what I think at least.


End file.
